Up In Smoke
by Prufrax
Summary: Victoria Chase is crashing down. Good thing Max Caulfield is nosy.


**UP IN SMOKE**

Victoria searched for the cigarette pack in all the pockets of her jacket. How come she had already forgotten where she put it? Hadn't she started smoking that last cigarette a couple minutes ago?

She looked back at her car with a bitter expression. It was parked about half a mile away. Why had she thought that taking a walk on the beach was a good idea? Fuck.

Right as she took the first step toward the car so she could get to a store, she felt something in the back pocket of her jeans. So that was where it was.

Once she had the pack in her hand, she grimaced. It was all crumpled. Who knew how long had she been walking with the damn thing getting mushed against her butt? How on earth had she assumed that putting it there was a good idea? Her jeans were the kind that practically looked like body paint on account of how tight they were.

Sighing, Victoria flipped the cover to examine the contents. To her surprise, none of the cigarettes were broken. Yeah, they looked like something straight out of a post-apocalyptic film but they were still usable.

She pulled one of the crumpled cylinders out with shaky fingers and brought it to her lips. Her hands hadn't stopped shaking ever since Jefferson and Nathan got dragged away by the cops a few days prior. It hadn't helped that when she attended the funeral of the Price girl, Max Caulfield had looked pale and gaunt. It was like she had aged years in days. Who could tell what she was going through, because she had the thousand yard stare going on.

Victoria lit the cigarette and inhaled deeply, allowing the smoke to burn away the frayed edges of her nerves. All her troubles dimmed ever so slightly. Cigarettes were garbage at this but that son of a bitch, Frank, had disappeared right when the shit hit the fan at Blackwell. No wonder, considering that Nathan's direct involvement in the murder sent the police sniffing all over the Vortex Club's business.

From there, it all blew up spectacularly. Now everyone knew that the rich kids at Blackwell were a bunch of junkies. Finding the provider was the obvious next step, and everyone knew who that was. That was the problem with tiny map stains like this town.

Hell, why was she even dissing Frank? It made sense that the dude would promptly fall off the face of the earth. It probably came down to her bad habit of shifting blame onto others, Victoria reasoned as she took another drag from the cigarette.

Even if he hadn't vanished, her parents had considerably cut down her allowance. So, she couldn't afford the good shit anyway. She also wasn't old enough to buy alcohol legally and people in hick towns like Arcadia Bay were too uptight to sell illegally. That left only cigarettes. Thank fuck for the greedy shits behind the tobacco industry for pushing the legal age down to eighteen, huh?

Sex sort of helped her forget, too. At least the one time. She had gone out last night and picked up some random older guy around the edge of town. It was safer for her reputation, if not safer in general, since fucking someone from school would've raised all kinds of rumors. And fucked she had. The bastard had left hand-shaped welts on her ass and made a sticky mess of both her face and hair. She didn't mind rough, so whatever. The big problem was that the moment she came down from the orgasmic haze, fear and instant regret hit her like a train.

Never before in her life had Victoria Chase dressed so quickly. She had immediately bolted out of the motel room and jumped into her car, leaving behind burned rubber and smoke. Yeah, that was something she wasn't trying again, at least not any day soon. Nicotine would have to do.

Victoria took one last drag before throwing the butt at her feet and stamping it with the platform of her high heel shoe. Pulling another cigarette out of the pack with trembling fingers, she began walking again. Where she had been standing lay discarded a small collection of lipstick-stained cigarette filters.

Right as she began lifting the lighter toward her face, a hand appeared on her forearm. "Victoria," a subdued, feminine voice said, "that's like the tenth cigarette you smoke."

With a ridiculous squeak, Victoria jumped away from the hand and looked at the intruder. "Max! What the fuck?" She scanned the beach back and forth with wild eyes. "When did you…? How did you…?"

Max raised her hands in surrender. "Sorry, didn't mean to startle you."

Putting a hand over her chest, Victoria took a couple of deep breaths to calm herself down.

"Are you okay?" Max asked, searching Victoria's eyes.

Three simple words that Victoria had heard countless times before. Yet, here Max was, the friend of the murdered girl asking the friend of the murderer if she was okay. Something inside Victoria broke in that moment. Turning her body slightly away, she tried to pull another cigarette out of the pack. The original one had flown out of her hand when Max scared the shit out of her.

This time, both of Max's hands appear on top of Victoria's. "You shouldn't."

Victoria just stared idiotically at where Max was touching her. The girl's skin was so warm and soft. Her hands were smaller than Victoria's and it made them look cute. Whatever it was that had broken inside Victoria, it now spilled out and swept her away. She unceremoniously dropped the cigarette pack and the lighter and grabbed Max's hands with all her strength.

Max recoiled and took a step back, pulling her hands away. "Victoria?"

The sting of rejection brought out the bitch in Victoria, just like any other reflex in her body. "What the fuck? Are you homophobic or something?"

"What?!" Max nearly shouted, which was very uncharacteristic of her.

Victoria made a face and shrugged. "What?"

"Just a week ago you were calling me a dyke and a faggot! Like, what the hell, Victoria?!"

It took Victoria a couple seconds to ponder that statement. Several images of a certain pixie-haired blonde bullying a short, bob-haired brunette flashed through her mind.

"Ah, fuck." She slammed the palm of her hand against her forehead.

After a few seconds of awkward silence, Victoria let out a tired sigh and squatted down to pick up her cigarettes and lighter.

Surprisingly, Max's hands appeared once more out of nowhere, beating her to pick up the items and promptly throwing them into the ocean.

Victoria tried to look angry as she stood up and glared at Max. Mostly, she felt tired, though.

Max met her gaze without flinching and shrugged as she said, "You've smoked like ten cigarettes in half an hour. That can't be good for you."

"Yeah, I guess not," Victoria said, running a hand along her hair.

Another awkward silence began stretching between them. This time, however, Victoria interrupted it.

"Look," she said, "I'm a huge bitch, okay? We all know that. I don't have anything against gay people, or hell, even though I should, I'm indifferent toward homophobes. I mean, as long as they don't mess with anyone, they can believe what the fuck ever they want. Live and let live and all that shit."

Victoria put a hand on her forehead and closed her eyes. "Thing is, I'll use anything in reach to try hurting people when I'm in bitch mode. No matter how low."

Opening her eyes after a few seconds, she took an unsure step toward Max. "Does that make sense?"

Max made a noncommittal face and hugged herself with one arm. "I guess."

"I'm trying to change, though," Victoria blurted. She then looked down at the sand under her feet. "I know I'm not even close, but give me a shot. Please."

The last part was said so low that Max said, "What?"

"I'm so sorry, okay?" Victoria shouted suddenly, tears filling her eyes. "I'm sorry I'm such a piece of shit, okay?"

Between sobs, she heard Max say something and then felt two hands cup her cheeks.

"It's okay." Max pulled Victoria's face down toward her shoulder.

At that moment, the last string holding Victoria together finally snapped. She began bawling into the shorter girl's shoulder.

They stood like that for a while.

When Victoria finally calmed down, Max said, "Want me to walk you over to your car?"

Victoria simply shook her head.

"What do you want to do, then?"

After a few seconds, Victoria finally whispered, "Kiss you."

Sliding away from the embrace, Max pushed Victoria by the shoulders and looked at her, arching an eyebrow.

Thoughtlessly, Victoria reached up and caressed Max's face.

The shorter girl didn't refuse the touch, nor did she react positively. She rolled her eyes and shook Victoria's body. "You're talking crazy."

In Victoria's defense, she was still riding the wave of relief after crying her eyes out on Max's shoulder. She also was dead tired from insomnia and stress. The past couple of days had been harsh in that regard. Plus, she was mesmerized by Max's impossibly blue eyes and downy, freckled cheeks. Not to mention that the girl had appeared at the right moment to support Victoria in a moment of need. The result was a perfect combination of emotional vulnerability.

"And you're so beautiful," Victoria replied, running a thumb along the other girl's lips.

Max seized up at the sensation and let out a shuddering breath a second later. "Ah, fuck it." She grabbed fistfuls of Victoria's jacket and pulled her in for a kiss.

For the first time in days, Victoria managed to forget about the world and its woes. The only thing on her mind was the girl in her arms and the soft lips dancing insistently with her own.

They separated a few minutes later to catch their breath.

"So," Victoria said, "want to come to my room for Netflix and chill?"

Max looked pointedly at her. "Uh, huh. Netflix and chill? Or, _Netflix and chill_?" She made air quotes at the last part.

Victoria rolled her eyes.

"Look..." Max hugged herself and stared at her own feet. "I don't want to rush into, uh, whatever it is that we're starting." She looked up beseechingly into Victoria's eyes. "Okay?"

"I…" Victoria was once again entranced. How could she refuse those puppy eyes? Who could? She groaned loudly before continuing. "Okay… Okay, I can do patience."

"Great!" Max pronounced loudly as she grabbed Victoria's hand and began dragging her toward the parking lot.

"So, it's too soon for a makeout sesh but not for walking hand in hand?"

"Yep." Max kept walking, nonchalantly shrugging off the question.

Victoria rolled her eyes but said nothing as a grin appeared on her lips. The fact was that she was loving this. It was just that her dark side demanded that she at least acted fussy about it. She probably wasn't even going to miss the nicotine at all. Especially if something more serious came out of this. Hell, she probably wasn't even going to miss her allowance if that happened.

 **FIN**


End file.
